Bangladesh’s first oil field was discovered in 1986 at Haripur in Sylhet. Petrobangla began commercial extraction from it the following year. Over seven consecutive years, the field yielded roughly 542,000 barrels of crude. Output then dwindled until pumping stopped entirely in 1994. The stated reason was that the operation had become uneconomic. Yet geologists and many former officials of Petrobangla and other state energy companies maintain the true cause of the shutdown remains unknown.

Geologists blame technical failure, declining wellhead pressure and mismanagement. Petrobangla executives point to rising water ingress that made commercial production unviable. Three decades later, however, advanced technology is unlocking large gas reserves from the same abandoned wells at Haripur. Energy sector insiders note that, for reasons nobody has explained, no modern extraction technique was ever applied to the oil deposits.

Maqbul E Elahi Chowdhury worked across the state energy apparatus — BERC, Petrobangla and BAPEX — serving in Petrobangla’s geology division, as BAPEX managing director and as BERC’s member for gas. He was in Petrobangla’s geology unit when the Haripur field was found and observed the extraction work at first hand.

Asked why pumping ceased at Haripur, Chowdhury said, “The explanations offered include depletion, waxy chemical buildup in the pipeline and other factors. But before any well is declared abandoned there must be proper testing and a detailed report stating exactly why operations are stopping. To my knowledge, no such report was ever produced for Haripur.”

Petrobangla has taken no effective decision on Haripur’s oil in the three decades since the shutdown. The ongoing Middle East conflict has now injected fresh uncertainty into fuel imports, pushing domestic exploration back up the agenda. Energy specialists now urge an assertive campaign in abandoned fields such as Haripur.

In December 2023, Petrobangla announced it had struck oil at the Sylhet-10 well in the Haripur structure. The company said crude was found between 1,397 and 1,445 metres depth in the Sylhet gas field. The then state minister for power, energy and mineral resources said the well initially flowed at 35 barrels per day. It became Bangladesh’s second recognised oil field after Haripur.

Nearly two and a half years later, Petrobangla has yet to take any effective step to begin extraction from Sylhet-10. The company insists it is fast-tracking the work and that the pipeline will be completed once land-related obstacles are cleared.

Several geologists said the global techniques needed to sustain extraction at Haripur were never adopted. In a typical oil field, crude flows under its own pressure after discovery. But years of pumping deplete that pressure, and production stops. Operators then install artificial lift mechanisms — rod pumps, for instance — inside the well. The fix is technically simple and cheap. Operators drill and operate multiple wells in any given field.

Once primary output ends, secondary recovery begins. Operators drill new wells outside the field and inject water through them into the reservoir. The water advances into the oil layer and raises pressure, reviving production. This method has sustained output in every oil-producing country for decades. Geologists believe the Haripur field’s development failed because of immature, incomplete extraction management, and that failure is why no oil could be recovered from it later.

Multiple studies and Petrobangla data show that early surveys at the Haripur field pointed to probable reserves of 10 million barrels. Over seven years, extraction yielded just 500,000 barrels of crude, meaning at least 95 percent of the oil probably remains in the ground. Sylhet Gas Fields Limited (SGFL) figures indicate the Haripur field was producing up to 300 to 400 barrels per day at that time. Once output sagged to 100 barrels, the well was shut in.

Asked about the field, Professor Md Anwar Hossain Bhuiyan, of Dhaka University’s geology department, told Bonik Barta: “They extracted oil from the Haripur field at one stage. Water later entered the well and stopped production. But after the shutdown, there was scope to drill more wells. That might have yielded a different result.”

He believes every exploration carries a dual prospect: drilling the well could strike oil, or even if it yielded nothing, it would at least settle whether the site holds any reserves at all. Either way, some outcome is secured. The presence of oil at Haripur did not lack continuity, he argues; crude was detected in another layer. That discovery opens short-, medium- and long-term options.

Professor Md Shofiqul Islam, head of petroleum and mining engineering at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, told Bonik Barta: “Haripur is already yielding gas and condensate. In our country, exploration follows a pattern: if a well passes through five layers and one shows commercial gas potential, the other four are neglected. Now, with domestic gas scarce and imports climbing, operators are drilling the promising layers identified earlier and finding gas. The layers at Haripur that warranted investigation, that needed drilling, were never touched.”

He added: “Oil and gas exploration demands far-reaching vision. Bureaucratic tangles and rigid cost-benefit arithmetic make it impossible to push exploration forward.”

The Haripur oil field falls under Sylhet Gas Fields Limited (SGFL) and is now known as the Sylhet gas field. Its four wells feed 8 million cubic feet of gas a day into the national grid. SGFL says it is drilling new wells to explore additional gas and oil.

SGFL Managing Director Engineer Md Faruk Hossain told Bonik Barta: “We’re now mainly producing gas from the Haripur field. Oil extraction ran until 1994. The very first well, drilled for gas in 1986, struck oil. After several workovers, we found no further oil. But we’ve now moved to drill Sylhet-12 in the Haripur structure. If that well yields oil, a decision on the Haripur oil field or the Sylhet-7 well will follow.”

Several current and former Petrobangla officials do not dispute that the abandoned Haripur field languished for years without a firm decision to drill. They note that oil-well drilling and workovers differ from gas operations. Modern technology and a rigorous survey, they add, could have sustained oil production far longer and uncovered larger reserves.

Petrobangla Director (PSC) Engineer Md Shoaib told Bonik Barta: “We drilled two wells in the Haripur oil field. Both yielded gas, which we’re now extracting. Oil hasn’t been found in that sense.”

Petrobangla is now implementing a 50-well drilling programme and has pledged to drill a further 100 wells by 2028, including new, workover and development wells. Yet the abandoned Haripur oil well features in none of these plans. The global energy crunch has thrust domestic oil and gas exploration back into focus, but no specific word has emerged on whether the energy division or Petrobangla will redevelop the field.

Petrobangla Chairman Md Erfanul Haque told Bonik Barta: “Since oil production stopped at Haripur, we have been continuously extracting gas. If the gas ever declines, a new survey may prompt renewed exploration for both oil and gas there.”